{"id":40086,"date":"2026-04-04T15:48:47","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T15:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/?p=40086"},"modified":"2026-04-04T15:48:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T15:48:47","slug":"mayor-mamdani-cardi-b-announce-2-k-applications-open-june-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/archives\/40086","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Mamdani, Cardi B announce 2-K applications open June 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>NEWYORK: Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and Bronx-born rapper, parent and former New York City Public School student Cardi B announced that applications for the City\u2019s first 2-K program will open June 2 and run through June 26, 2026, marking a major step toward universal, free child care for two-year-olds.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Families will be able to apply for 2-K seats in school districts 6, 10, 18, 23 and 27, with offers released in August.<\/p>\n<p>To build momentum ahead of the application opening, the administration is launching a citywide 2-K application jingle competition, inviting New Yorkers to submit original 15 or 30-second jingles encouraging families to apply. A panel of special guest judges will review submissions before New Yorkers vote to select a winner. The winning entry will become the official 2-K theme for New York City and play on the radio.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs Cardi B says: \u201cI can get \u2019em both. I don\u2019t wanna choose.\u201d With universal child care, New Yorkers won\u2019t have to,\u201d said\u00a0Mayor Mamdani.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor too long, families have been forced to choose between affordable care and staying in the city they love. Now, they can have both\u2014free care in the greatest city in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChild care is very important. Sometimes us women can\u2019t really go forward because we don\u2019t have nobody to help us take care of our kids,\u201d said\u00a0Cardi B\u00a0in the video announcement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe launch of 2-K marks an important milestone for early childhood education in New York City. Expanding access to early care and learning for two-year-olds helps children build strong foundations for language, social development, and learning, while supporting families during an important stage of their child\u2019s development,\u201d said\u00a0Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels. \u201cThis is an important step as we continue building a stronger, more connected birth-to-five early childhood system for New York City families.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 2-K program is New York City\u2019s answer the urgent need for free, accessible child care for two-year-olds.<\/p>\n<p>Announced last month, the program will provide free child care to any family that needs it, regardless of ZIP code, income or immigration status.<\/p>\n<p>The program will launch this fall with 2,000 free seats and expand to universal access within four years.<\/p>\n<p>NYC Public Schools will share additional details, including final provider locations, with families and community partners in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEWYORK: Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and Bronx-born rapper, parent and former New York City Public School student Cardi B announced that applications for the City\u2019s first 2-K program will open June 2 and run through June 26, 2026, marking a major step toward universal, free child care for two-year-olds. Families will be able to apply [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":39692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1469,31,1378],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-york","category-news","category-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40086"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40089,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40086\/revisions\/40089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}